| Bacterial infections can cause serious complications if they are not effectively and promptly treated with antibiotics. In particular, severe eye infections can cause loss of vision or corneal scaring. Current drug delivery treatments have limitations such as: low drug bioavailability, increased dosages to reach therapeutic levels and unwanted side effects to healthy tissues. Nanospheres utilized as drug delivery systems have shown the potential to overcome these current issues. They can provide localized drug delivery, controlled release, reduce side effects to healthy tissues and can increase the solubility of many hydrophobic drugs.;In this research, the first study begins with the synthesis and characterization of pullulan-polycaprolactone (PCL) core-shell nanospheres and their use encapsulating hydrophobic ciprofloxacin. The block copolymer was synthesized and characterized using 1HNMR to identify the presence of both pullulan and PCL. The nanospheres were then characterized for size, quantity and release of ciprofloxacin. SEM and DLS confirmed that ciprofloxacin-loaded nanospheres were approximately 142 +/- 12 nm in size. UV spectroscopy showed that the ciprofloxacin was successfully encapsulated and released.;The next analysis examined an alternate technique in the nanosphere synthesis process. Dialysis is typically used to remove the solvent and remaining impurities from the nanosphere aqueous solution. In this research, the effects of adding ciprofloxacin into the dialysis water and the differences between 24, 48 and 72 hrs of dialysis time intervals were investigated. Adding ciprofloxacin to the dialysis process was shown to increase the amount of drug encapsulation by 30 to 40 times. Dialysis times also affected physical characteristics of the nanospheres. Nanospheres placed in dialysis longer dialysis times exhibited greater dispersability in water, cotton-like texture and a whiter color.;The third investigation examined the antimicrobial effects of ciprofloxacin-loaded nanospheres in Escherichia coli. To test released drug efficacy, 2, 10 and 20 microg/mL of ciprofloxacin-loaded nanospheres were tested in cultures inoculated with E. coli and shown bacterial growth inhibition over a period of 5 days. The loaded nanospheres demonstrated controlled release of ciprofloxacin which remained bioactive after the encapsulation process. This type of drug carrier is beneficial when treating a bacterial infection due to its capability to target the site of infection, provide sustained release and minimizing side effects to healthier tissues. |
